MnDOT cancels Portland Tunnel closure planned for Tuesday

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has postponed Tuesday night's closure of the Portland Avenue tunnel on eastbound I-94 until next week.

The agency had planned to shut down the tunnel from 11 p.m. Tuesday to 5 a.m. Wednesday so crews could replace broken and missing tiles inside the tunnel, patch leaks in the ceiling and conduct other minor repairs.

But the contractor carrying out the project could not find a subcontractor to do the work, so MnDOT has rescheduled the closure for 11 p.m. July 18 to 5 a.m. July 19, said spokesman David Aeikens.

Work in the Portland Tunnel is part of the MnDOT's I-94 Minneapolis to Brooklyn Center project that started in March. In that project, the agency is repaving nine miles of the freeway and rehabilitating 50 bridges beteween Shingle Creek Parkway and Nicollet Avenue S.

Currently traffic is sharing one side of the Lowry HIll Tunnel with two lanes of traffic in each direction. That configuration will remain in place until early September.